The urgent care MD I saw was a partner in the practice and med center of my internist. That didn’t stop her from asking me innumerable Qs for over an hour. She had full access to my extensive EMR record as well. She was nice but honestly saw me as very complex and was very curious. Since so was feeling awful, I really didn’t have the energy to keep answering Qs.
Your experience of course could be much better—fortunately D had better experiences the 2 times she was seen by urgent .
Since experiences in urgent care are so variable, i prefer a reliable primary care doc that knows me well rather than potluck with dr. whomever is in duty at urgent care.
I love my PCP and see her yearly for a check-up and to monitor my medication. That said, the few times I have been sick, the soonest I could get an appointment was 2 weeks and I was told to use urgent care. So it’s not like my PCP will see me if I actually need medical attention. Which feels very weird.
I am not sure how much high rank in medical school and institutional quality of residency relates to quality as a physician well into his/her career, especially as an internist/primary care physician/family physician.
Sone MDs are “smart” but aren’t good at working with patients and don’t listen to them so no surprise the results aren’t good for the patient. Sadly I’ve seen quite a few of them but fortunately have seen several excellent ones as well.
You better hope that prestige of residency is not the main factor of physician quality. There are over 170 medical schools in the US alone. If we only “accept” docs from the top say 20% clearly most of us aren’t going to get a good one following that theory!
Your residency is only as as good as your effort, as the rigor of the residency training, as the precepting site physicians….SO many factors - a lesser known medical school can turn out stellar providers with a good mix of stellar residency coordination and stellar human under the residency white coat.
I know many brilliant and skilled MDs who chose primary care over other options because that is what they want, even tho they know it doesn’t pay as well as specialty care. I admire them and feel they are serving their communities well. They were/are top medical students but love getting work with the range of patients and helping connect them to and needed specialists while providing exceptional care for all around health.
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